Getting My Sister To Japan

Sister is here for the holidays and I can’t be happier. It’s been a long time coming, we always made plans for my family to visit us but it kept getting pushed back or cancelled.

Since I’ve been doing so well with saving up lately that I was able to buy her a ticket when Cebu Pacific was having a seat sale. I was able to purchase her round trip tickets for just a little over $250. That’s already a steal cause typically roundtrip tickets costs $500 from Manila to Tokyo. The ticket included a meal, 20kgs of checked in baggage and 7kgs of hand carry. Not bad right. These seat sales occur quite frequently but seats go fast.

With the ticket booked, the next things was her visa. Since I’ve applied for visa twice while I was back home and assisted my cousin last year when she applied for hers, I’m already somewhat of an expert in this process. I sent sister the documents she needed from us two weeks before her flight, it took only two days for it to reach her and she applied for her visa the next day. Like I said, I’ve been through this process a couple of times already so we already have a preferred travel agency we process visas with. In Manila, you can’t apply for a Japanese Visa directly to the Japan Embassy, you really have to go through an accredited travel agency to do it. You can find the list of requirements and instructions on how to apply for one here. For my sister’s visa, it only took them three days to process it.

Sister arrived a few days ago and it already makes such a huge difference. I’m more relaxed because I don’t have to stress myself out over doing everything myself. I get to do things without worrying about Liam getting himself into trouble. Liam seem to prefer sister over me sometimes. During her first night here, Liam cried his little lungs out cause he wanted sister to sleep in our room with us. He didn’t stop until she was laying next to him. It made me a little jealous. I try not to think too much about it cause I always complain about how clingy Liam is to me so now I get a taste of that I thought I wanted. Also, free child care isn’t something to complain about. I went to go to the gym by myself yesterday while Liam was taking a nap and I got to workout a whole two hours. I’m still waiting for the husband to come home so I can make the most out of this free child care situation. I want to go watch movies and date nights.

We also have a trip to Osaka planned for Liam’s birthday so that’s exciting. What I’m getting at is, with the sister here, things are gonna be a little more interesting. LOL.